There was an official Star Wars newsletter that did publish some fan art and meta articles by fans. Bantha Tracks[5] was published from 1978 to 1987 by LucasFilm as part of the Fan Relations department.

The first Star Wars movie came out just as the new Star Trek movie was in early production at Paramount. The success of the Star Wars movie helped persuade Hollywood to move ahead with a Star Trek feature film rather than a revised television series. However, Star Wars was not entirely welcomed by all Star Trek fans. "Not all of Star Trek fandom reacted favorably to Star Wars, however. Two extremes have already formed, one saying that 'Trek is doomed' (a new slogan) citing Star Wars as its killer, and the other faction maintaining a grin-and-bear-it attitude, assuming that the enthusiasm will wane eventually leaving ST fandom intact and Star Wars as 'just another...movie.'" [6]

In 1980, the annual convention for fanzine producers and readers moved from Michigan to New York for one year. "The name, Mos' Eastly Con, showed the growing influence of Star Wars. Organizers evenly split the panels between Star Trek and Star Wars; the remaining panels covered general topics (such as "the art of editing")." [9]

Star Wars fanzines and other fan works continued to be published through the 1980s and 1990s, with interest in the fandom waxing and waning over the years, often timed to the release of a new movie. For example, in 1993 and again from 2004-2008, there were no Star Wars specific FanQ awards.

At the Birth of the Fandom

By next year, at the very least, a new fandom will spring into existence: Star Wars fandom. But why a whole fandom for just one movie? Why so much excitement just for two hours of fantasy on film?... The mundane reviewers suggest that people are tired of all the disaster films, the film jammed with social commentary, heavy symbolism and heavy meanings. Or maybe there hasn't been a big escapism film in a long time, and Star Wars luckily cased in by appearing at just the right time? Or maybe the special effects just swept everyone up in an identical wave of enthusiasm? Yet, not only has the mundane public turned out in record numbers to see Star Wars. Fandom has gone all out, too, and not Star Trek fandom either. All of the SF-related fandoms are talking about Star Wars: comix fandom, Sword & Sorcery, even Tolkien... Just to look at Star Trek fandom in particular, the popularity can be traced to the fact that Paramount has stalled far too long in bringing out the new series. Star Trek fandom was ripe for Star Wars to find a willing audience. Another thing about Star Wars is the scope of the film. There is an epic quality to Star Wars... It's a grand tale full of adventure and suspense... Star Trek never had that epic quality. The whole of ST might have, but you might have to think a while before you could grasp it all. Star Wars shows that epic tale in the space of two hours, so that you don't have time to lose a single instant of it... A Star Wars fandom seems almost destined. Zine should appear shortly and one can only wonder when the first Star Wars convention will be. As in the case of ST fandom in the late '60's and early '70's, it will probably be a case of Star Wars appearing as part of the programming in regular ST, SF and Comicons, until a large enough cult exists to hold separate Star Wars cons... Many of them have already instituted SW panels, and Star Wars characters now swamp the costume competitions with a multitude of Lukes, Solos, and Wookies. [10]

SW fandom didn't just spring up ready-developed in 1977. There was a short time between the appearance of the movie and the first major fan activities and publications. [This] period between the time when the potential for a fandom exists, but has not yet been realized is known in sf fandom as Eofandom... One of the earliest criticisms of SW fandom I heard was that it never had a chance to develop on its own. SW fandom, critics claimed, was more public relations hype than it was true fandom. While this may be true, fandoms are not formed by corporations. Corporations can encourage the beginnings of a fandom, but they cannot create fandom... Twentieth Centurey could have come up with a prefab fandom for SW unless there was a potential there all along. [11]

Against the Sith (fiction and non-fiction) and Skywalker (fiction) were published in April 1978, though Against the Sith beat Skywalker by a few weeks. [15]

Before the internet, fans kept in contact via regular mail and letterzines, which were small, cheaply produced zines that printed letters from the subscribers, often including new zine announcements, meta discussions and essays, and flame wars as well as friendly chat and news about the movies and the fan community. Some fan club groups also produced their own letterzines, some including members' fan fiction and fan art. Three key letterzines were Alderaan (1978-1981), Jundland Wastes (1981-1983), and Southern Enclave (1984-2000).

Hundreds of zines were published and sold by fans through the mail and at conventions such as MediaWest*Con; some are still in production or available through used zines sales at conventions or on eBay.

Star Wars Was Constantly Jossed

Because of the long lapses between the first three films (to say nothing of the three after that), fans and their creative works were constantly jossed. The revelation that Darth Vader was Luke's father in the second film threw fans for a loop, as did the second reveal in the third movie, that Luke and Leia were sister and brother.

Women In Star Wars Fandom

Star Wars has traditionally been seen as a primarily male-dominated fandom. As a result, the role that women have played in the development of the fandom has been often overlooked.

In 1982, Pat Nussman published an article in Comlink #9, a Star Wars letterzine entitled: "Where the Boys Are." In the article she explored the gender make-up of media fandom at the time and argued that it was skewed towards greater female participation, specifically in Star Wars fandom. The existence of such an article suggests that Star Wars fandom, like other areas of life, is not so much dominated by one gender or another as it is (or was) sex-segregated. See also Where are the women bloggers? at the Geek Feminism Wiki.

In 1995, the AOL Star Wars fan club began hosting Tuesday "Ladies Night" online chats. "Star Wars Ladies Night in private room 'Star Ladies'. The Star Wars Ladies Night is a free form discussion group that provides an opportunity for SW fans to discuss issues of interest to women. Join us as we discuss the Star Wars trilogy and its legacy from a woman's point of view. E-mail Ghislaine or LdyTempus for more info." [16]

Some Difficult Times

After Return of the Jedi was released, Star Wars fandom entered a trying period. There were no new movies on the horizon, and the last one had been somewhat of a letdown, anyway. The wounds opened by debate, much of it pointed and painful, in Jundland Wastes caused many fans to lick their wounds and back off.

There were some dark years ahead as SW fandom came to terms with the irreconcilable differences that exist among its members. Differences of opinion seemed to automatically transform into accusations. Sarcastic “how could you possibly believe that…” comments escalated into personal attacks on the opposing fan’s moral judgments. The word “fascist” had been used before to deride arguments in favor of the Imperials, but now fans were accused of such attitudes simply because they disagreed with another fan’s opinion. As mentioned earlier, fandom finally got angry enough to engage its most powerful defense: shunning. The instigators of the worst hostility found their letters were ignored; received and printed, yes, but no one responded. The topics and conversations flowed on around them without the slightest indication that their hostility mattered to anyone. And, eventually, those hateful letters stopped coming to the editor. Unfortunately, people were already well-burned. The legacy of the bad days muted lively discourse for years. The assumption that an unconventional opinion would automatically inspire a return to arms seemed accepted by many fans. People couched opinions with self-abasing modifiers, or simply waited for someone else to speak up. And, often, no one did — in print. There were some dry periods amongst the LoCs. Slowly, SW fans found their way back to a livelier conversational exchange. Articles began to reappear. The Pro SW novels began to appear, rekindling interest in younger fans. Rumors of new movies became facts and everyone wanted to share their speculations. And then came The Web. [17]

Move To The Internet

In the mid to late 90s, Star Wars fanfiction began to appear online in multi-fandom mailing lists, archives, and personal author sites, and finally in new Star Wars-centric archives. At first, much of the new fanfiction available online was drawn from the new Star Wars novel series, such as The Jedi Academy Trilogy (first published in 1994) and the X-Wing Series (beginning in 1996). The Corellian Embassy started up in 1998, with the goal of getting movie fanfiction from the older fanzines of the 70s and 80s online where new fans could find it. It was followed by sites like the Organa-Zation, SWA-L, The Sith Academy, The Force.Net's fanfiction section, Elusive Lover, and many others. Many of the early sites were on free services like GeoCities or AngelFire, and have since been lost. A few of the Geocities websites have been archived and are listed List of GeoCities Fansites#Star_Wars here. A comprehensive list of websites featuring Star Wars fan fiction and fan art, mailing lists and resource websites can be found on Stay On Target.

Impact of Star Wars Prequel Movies

Adult/Slash Themes

In 1982, Maureen Garrett, president of the official Star Wars Fan Club sent a 'warning' to Star Wars fanzines that were publishing adult themed fiction. This reflected the uneasy relationship that Star Wars fans had with Lucasfilm.

Throughout the 70s and 80s, Lucasfilm remained closely tied to Star Wars fan clubs and fanzine publishers, even asking fans to submit their fanzines to the studio for 'archiving' purposes. Some fans believed that Lucasfilm was using this as a pretext to monitor their fan works to ensure compliance with Lucasfilm's vision of a franchise with "no pornography, vulgarity, or explicit gore and violence." (See Lucasfilm for more). Ironically, the warning was over a het story that even by then standards would have garnered an R rating. For some fans, this was a welcomed attempt to curb what they felt was an unacceptable proliferation of adult themed fan fiction. In fact, some Star Trek fans, unhappy with the K/S slash fiction that was popular in their fandom, became more open to the Star Wars fandom. [18]

Nonetheless, most fans, particularly female fans, did not take to the new message:

Lucasfilm is saying "you must enjoy the characters of the Star Wars universe for male reasons. Your sexuality must be correct and proper by my (male) definition, I am not male. I do not want to be. I refuse to be a poor imitation, or worse, someone's idiotic ideal of femininity. Lucasfilm has said in essence, "this is what we see in the Star Wars films and we are telling you this is what you will see." [19]

In 1991, Barbara T perhaps put the fan response most succinctly: "Fans mental play is no business of producers and nether are their private communications, however lengthy." [20]

In spite of Lucasfilm's attempt to maintain control over fan creations, fans continued to produce fanzines. Adult het and slash zines were, however, fewer in number, but that type of fan fiction continued to circulate privately as part of an informal circuit. See the Han/Luke page for more about the informal circuit. In fact, one such story involved an S/M encounter between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, was xeroxed and passed around in fandom at only slightly less than internet speed.[21] The notable exceptions were (1) the Organia fanzine published in 1982 which contained adult het fan fic well as original science fiction and feminist articles and poetry and (2) Imperial Entanglements published in 1982 with both gen and slash stories involving minor or original characters.

Star Wars Conventions

A young fan at a 1981 convention shows off his Yoda puppet -- the photo illustrates the large range of ages that participated in fan-run masquerade contests and activities and how many costumes were hand-made while also incorporating pre-made items. [24]

four convention flyers

While Star Wars fandom was close to as large, and certainly attracted a wide variety of fans, as Star Trek did, the traction for specific Star Wars cons never took off.

One reason: George Lucas forbid any major Star Wars actors from appearing at cons where unlicensed goods, such as fanzines and other fannish goods were sold. And Lucas himself, except for one exception (Starlog Salutes Star Trek) did not appear at cons.

The fandom itself was huge and varied, and while Star Trek fans were able to harness that energy and focus it on specific cons, Star Wars fans apparently did not.

Other FanWorks: SongVids, Artwork, Costumes & Filking

Sections to Add

Sections to add. Anyone with any knowledge is welcome to pitch in:First fan-run Star Wars convention? Fleshing out Star Wars fanzine history with more firsts. What about Star Wars costuming and filking? Star Wars artists? Star Wars vids?
"Notable clubs?"
Star Wars entry into the Internet? Early mailing lists/newsgroups. The move to graphical websites. Fan's creating their own websites. Fan Fiction archives.Impact the prequels movies had on reviving fandom. How did the movies impact the growth of the fandom and fan's output/interest.''

↑ The editor of "Moonbeam" says: "I believed for almost 30 years that it was in fact the first primarily Star Wars fiction fanzine, but I recently learned that Skywalker, the exceptional Star Wars zine edited by Bev Clark, was in fact first by a couple of weeks. Ah well. I was still one of the first, and probably the first on the East Coast.."Main Moonbeam Page; WebCite.

↑ Actually, according to the dates on the zines themselves, "Moonbeam" was first; perhaps there was an understood wiggle-room with the distribution?

↑ From Bev Clark in Southern Enclave #10: "AGAINST THE SITH came out a few weeks before SKYWALKER, no more than six. Neither was the first SW fanzine, exactly. The very first fanzine was a small, poorly produced effort out of Long Beach, called THE FORCE; it was more like a traditional 5F fanzine in that it didn't have much fiction. It was also what is bluntly called in SF fandom, a crudzine. The first fanzine to print all SW fiction, though admittedly as a single issue of a fanzine that was not devoted to SW to the exclusion of all else, was MOONBEAM 3, which came out in the late fall of 1977 or the early spring of 1978 before either AGAINST THE SITH or SKYWALKER, at any rate. SKYWALKER was certainly in preparation by then, however, it began in September, 1977."

↑ "Hello Fanficcers! As many of you know, for years same-sex relationships have only been allowed to be written very vaguely and practically non-existent due to a decree by the owners of the site. Mod Squad has contacted the owner of the site recently with a request to resend this and I'm VERY pleased to announce that: There is no longer a restriction on same-sex relationships in fanfic. This is not a drill, I repeat, there is no longer a restriction on writing same-sex relationships. I think it probably goes without saying, but I would be remiss in my duty if I didn't say it: No other rules have changed as far as rating of fics and sexual depiction. Everything will remain family friendly. That is all. Please return to your regularly scheduled fanfic." -- MOD - With Regards to Same-sex relationships and Fanfic -- Jedi Council Forums, Archived version, May 26, 2015

↑ photo is from the Forrest J. Ackerman Collection, sold on eBay in 2012 after his death, photographer and photo subject unknown. Ackerman spent a lifetime amassing the world's largest personal collection of science-fiction and fantasy memorabilia and who coined the term ‘sci-fi’ in the 1950s.